Uncle Tom’s Cabin; Or, Life Among the Lowly.

First edition of Stowe's classic and vastly influential novel, "the social impact was greater than any book before or since." Octavo, two volumes bound in mid-20th century three quarter navy morocco over marbled boards by Blackwell with gilt titles and tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt, illustrated with title vignettes and six wood-engravings, original cloth bound in. Volume I with an albumen photographic portrait of the author signed by her and a four-page autograph letter signed tipped in, in which she extols the springtime in Florida and urges her correspondent to read about faith healing; Volume II with autograph sentiment signed by Stowe mounted to the first blank, "He always wins who sides with God. Yours Ever Truly, H.B. Stowe, Mandarin, Fla., May 25, 1875." First edition, second printing, with "spiled" (rather than "spilt") on page 42, line 1, and all other second printing points. BAL 19343. Bound into this copy is a significant amount of interesting autograph material from Stowe. Volume I includes an albumen photograph portrait of the author, mounted with her signature, affixed to the verso of the front free endpaper. A four-page autograph letter signed by Stowe follows, tipped to the first leaf. It reads:

Mandarin [Florida], March 29, 1879. Dear Lillie, Your kind letter containing your photograph has lain too long unanswered. I have had a pressure of writing engagements and also of the ____ of self or family that has put off everything that could be put off. Now spring has come. Orange trees, roses, lilies are blooming. Mrs. Claflin here & today I am grieved to see by your notes to her how much you are suffering. I wish you were only here where the first effect of the climate is to make us drowsy. This is the lotus eaters' paradise & we would serve out the lotus at all hours under our orange trees. The ground is drifted white with a snow storm of orange blossoms. I never saw such a blossoming in all my southern experience. It does seem to me as if Florida would have been better for you than Boston. The climate of Boston acts on the nerves like ____ of ____ [?]. I can't understand it & there is an undeniable ____ & ____ excitement forever in the air that forbids rest. Another year you must come here. Your loving friend, H B Stowe. ____ am sorry I have no corresponding photograph to send you. I like yours & think it quite a good one.

April 2. I have omitted to send this, & find it in my table today. I have been reading Dr. Cullis' report of "faith comes" in answer to prayer. Do you know Dr. Cullis? He is one of the most cheerful, vital, life-giving men I know & seems as sensible & sociable a man as you mite [i.e., might] ever meet. I have talked with him about these cures - the facts are beyond question. Is not our God a living God now, & Christ a healer. Do try it - go and see Dr. Cullis. Your loving HBS."

Stowe wintered in Florida in the years after the Civil War; she wrote about her time in Florida in Palmetto Leaves (1873). "Mrs. Claflin" was Mary Bucklin Claflin, wife of Governor William Claflin of Massachusetts. Her home was "for so long the center of social literary attraction" in Boston (The Bookman, Volume 1, 1895, page 17). In her memoir Under the Old Elms (1895), a book of anecdotes about famous people she knew, Claflin called Stowe "the person in all the distinguished company most unconscious of fame and modest in her bearing." She also mentioned Stowe's "enthusiastic love for flowers," a love that shines through this autograph letter. "Dr. Cullis" was Charles Cullis, the Episcopalian homeopathic physician who is "the undisputed father of the late 19th-century American divine-healing movement. Renowned for his philanthropy... he founded a home for incurable consumptives in Boston. He also established a publishing arm for his ministry, the highly successful Willard Tract Repository" (Van De Walle, The Heart of the Gospel, 118-19).

In Volume II, an albumen photograph of a man sitting next to a spinning wheel is affixed to the first blank (a penciled caption reads, for reasons unknown "Uncle Tom;" the individual does not resemble Josiah Henson, widely acknowledged to be Stowe's model for the character). The following leaf bears an autograph sentiment signed by Stowe: "He always wins, who sides with God. Yours Ever Truly, H.B. Stowe, Mandarin, Fla., May 25 1875."

In very good condition. Rare and desirable signed.